Refrigerant apparatus

ABSTRACT

A refrigerant apparatus having a compressor, a condenser, a first expansion valve means, a gas-liquid separator, a second expansion valve means and an evaporator. The compressor has a plurality of cylinders one of which is connected with the gas phase of the gas-liquid separator in order to inject the gas coolant into the compressor, other cylinders of the compressor being connected to the evaporator in order to suck the coolant from the evaporator. Since the gas coolant within the gas-liquid separator is injected into the compressor, the cooling capacity of the coolant passing through the evaporator can be expanded so that the cooling capacity of the present invention is increased. Though the gas coolant within the gas-liquid separator which includes no lubricant is sucked toward the compressor, the compressor can be lubricated by the lubricant coolant effectively, because the same compressor sucks the coolant containing lubricant from the evaporator.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a refrigerant apparatus having a compressor, a condenser, a first expansion valve means, a gas-liquid separator, a second expansion valve and an evaporator. The compressor of the present invention has a plurality of compression chambers, one part of which is connected with the portion of the gas-liquid separator, the other portions of which are connected with the evaporator so that the cooling capacity of the liquid coolant within the gas-liquid separator is increased.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A refrigerant apparatus which has an injection passage through which the gas coolant within the gas-liquid separator is injected into the compressor has been known as a so-called gas injection type refrigerant apparatus. FIG. 10 shows one type of such a conventional gas injection type refrigerant apparatus. The compressor 400 used for this type of refrigerant apparatus is a rotary type compressor which has a compression chamber, the effective volume of which is varied according with the rotation of the rotor. However, since both the coolant within the gas portion of the gas liquid separator 5 and the coolant within the evaporator 8 are introduced into the same compression chamber of the compressor 400, it is very hard to work the compressor 400 effectively. Therefore, the refrigerant apparatus shown in FIG. 10 is deemed to be impossible to work effectively.

In order to suck the gas coolant within the gas-liquid separator effectively, the refrigerant apparatus shown in FIG. 11 has also been used. Such an apparatus as shown in FIG. 11 has a main compressor 400 to which the coolant within the evaporator 8 is introduced and a sub-compressor 200 to which the coolant within the gas fuel separator 5 is introduced. The refrigerant apparatus shown in FIG. 11, however, has a serious disadvantage in that the sub-compressor 200 requires an extra lubricant system. The main compressor 400 used for the refrigerant apparatus is lubricated by the lubricant which is introduced into the compressor with the coolant. On the other hand, since the sub-compressor 200 is connected with the gas portion of the gas-liquid separator, the lubricant within the refrigerant apparatus is very hard to introduce into the sub-compressor 200. Therefore, the sub-compressor 200 requires an extra lubricating system in order to lubricate itself.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerant apparatus which has a single compressor to which the gas coolant from the gas-liquid separator is injected. Another object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerant apparatus having a compressor which sucks the coolant from both the evaporator and the gas liquid separator effectively. A further object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerant apparatus having a compressor which is lubricated by the lubricant within the refrigerant apparatus, namely the lubricant which is introduced into the compressor with the coolant.

In order to attain these objects, the refrigerant apparatus of the present invention employs a compressor having a plurality of compression chambers, a condenser, a first expansion valve means, a gas-liquid separator, a second expansion valve means and an evaporator. The gas coolant within the gas-liquid separator is injected into one part of the compression chamber of the compressor. The coolant from the evaporator is introduced into the other portions of the compression chamber of the compressor. Both the coolant injected into one part of the compression chamber and the coolant introduced into another part of the compression chamber is then compressed to discharge toward the condenser. Since the lubricant is introduced into the compressor mainly with the coolant from the evaporator, the compressor of the present invention can be lubricated effectively. Also, since the compressor of the present invention has two types of suction ports, one of which is connected with the gas-liquid separator through an injection passage, and another one which is connected with the evaporator, the compressor can suck the coolant and compress it effectively.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the refrigerant apparatus according to present invention,

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a compressor used for the apparatus shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the apparatus shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a mollier diagram explaining the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the gas liquid separator used in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the compressor used for the apparatus for the present invention,

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the gas-liquid separator used for the apparatus of the present invention,

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the relationship between discharge pressure and suction pressure of the compressor used for the apparatus of the present invention,

FIG. 9 shows a second embodiment of the refrigerant apparatus of the present invention,

FIG. 10 shows a conventional type refrigerant apparatus; and

FIG. 11 shows another type of conventional refrigerant apparatus.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The preferred embodiment of the present invention is described hereinafter:

In FIG. 1, numeral 100 shows a compressor having a plurality of the cylinders 16 and 17, and a single discharge port. Numeral 3 shows a condenser to which the pressurized coolant compressed in the compressor 100 is introduced. The coolant introduced into the condenser 3 is cooled in order to be condensed. Numeral 4 shows a first expansion valve means, the refrigerant apparatus of the present invention using a capillary tube as the first expansion valve. The condensed coolant condensed in the condenser 3 is introduced into the first expansion valve 4 so that the pressure of the coolant is reduced when the coolant passes through the first expansion valve 4. Numeral 5 shows a gas-liquid separator to which the coolant expanded by the first expansion valve 4 is introduced. The coolant is separated into a gas phase and liquid phase. Gas coolant within the gas-liquid separator 5 is sucked through injection passage 9 toward the cylinder 17 of the compressor 100, wherein the liquid coolant within the gas liquid separator 5 is introduced into a second expansion valve means 7 in order to reduce the pressure thereof. The coolant expanded by the second expansion valve means 7 is then introduced into an evaporator 8. The coolant passing through the evaporator 8 is evaporated by receiving the heat from the air so that the air introduced into the automotive passage room, for example, is cooled. The coolant evaporated in the evaporator 8 is then introduced via suction inlet 58 into the cylinder 16 of the compressor 100.

FIG. 2 shows a compressor 100 which has 10 cylinders. Numeral 50 shows an electromagnetic clutch, the rotation of an automotive engine (not shown) being transmitted to a shaft 21 via the electromagnetic clutch 50. The shaft 21 is rotatably supported by a housing 51 having five cylinder bores. Five pistons 22 are provided in the cylinder bores in such a manner that the pistons 22 can reciprocate within the cylinder bores. Each piston 22 has a couple of piston heads so that there are 10 cylinders 25, 26 within five cylinder bores. Each cylinder 25, 26 is covered by valve plates 52 and 53, and each valve plate 52 and 53 is covered by a front housing 11 and rear housing 12. Both the front housing 11 and the rear housing 12 of housing 10 have suction chambers 27 and 28 and discharge chambers 54 and 55. Each suction chamber is connected with the cylinder 25, 26 via a suction port 19 which is provided within the valve plate 52 and 53, and each discharge chamber is also connected with the cylinder 25, 26 via a discharge port 1 which is provided within the valve plate 52 and 53. A suction valve 29 is provided behind the valve plate 52 and 53 in such a manner that the suction valve 29 can close the suction port 18. A discharge valve 56 is also provided at the valve plate 52 and 53 in such a manner that the discharge valve 56 can close the discharge port.

The shaft 21 has a wobble plate, and the wobble plate 20 is functionally connected with the piston 22 via a shoe 23 and a ball 24 so that the piston 22 reciprocates within the cylinder bore when the wobble plate 20 is rotated.

The compressor has two suction inlets, one of which is connected with single suction chamber 28 and another suction inlet 58 which is connected with nine other suction chambers 27. These suction chambers 27 are connected with the suction inlet 58 via a wobble chamber 59 so that the coolant introduced into the compressor through the suction inlet 58 is introduced into the wobble chamber 59 then sucked toward the suction chamber 27. Therefore, the wobble plate 20, the shoe 23, the ball 24 and the piston 23 are lubricated by the lubricant which is included within the coolant. Suction chambers 54 and 55 also are connected with a discharge outlet 60 so that both the coolant which is introduced into the compressor via first suction inlet 9 and the coolant which is introduced into the compressor via a second suction inlet 58 are discharged into the discharge outlet 60.

FIG. 3 shows the connecting relation between the compressor 100, the condenser 3, the first and second expansion valve means 4 and 7, the gas-liquid separator 5 and the evaporator 8. The discharge outlet 60 of the compressor is connected with the condenser 3 via discharge conduit 41 which is made of rubber. The main suction inlet 58 is connected with the evaporator 8 via suction conduit 43, and the suction inlet 67 is connected with outlet 6 of the gas-liquid separator 5 via injection passage 9.

The condenser 3 is provided within the engine room in such a manner that a cooling air is introduced into the condenser. The gas liquid separator 5 is connected with the condenser 3. The evaporator 8 is provided within the automotive passage room, and the second expansion valve means 7 is connected with the evaporator 8. The second expansion valve means 7 of the present embodiment is a variable valve which chokes the effective area of the conduit 42 according to the temperature of the coolant within the conduit 43. Numeral 44 shows a case having an air passage provided therein.

In FIG. 3, a capillary tube 70 is shown as an alternative to the second expansion valve means 7.

FIG. 5 shows the gas-liquid separator 5. Numeral 70 shows a generator housing having an inlet 72 and two outlets 73 and 74 provided therein. The inlet 72 is connected with the first expansion valve means 4, first outlet 73 is connected with the injection passage 9, and the second outlet 74 is connected with the second expansion valve means 7 via conduit 42. The first outlet 73 faces the gas phase, namely, the upper side of the housing 70, and the second outlet 74 is connected with the liquid phase via a connecting pipe 75. Numeral 71 shows an inner plate having a number of small ports provided therein in order to pass the coolant therethrough so that the coolant through the plate 71 has no scrolling vector. Therefore, the upper surface of the liquid phase cannot be disturbed by the scrolling flow of the coolant. Numeral 76 shows a filter and numeral 77 shows a dryer which removes the water from the coolant.

The operation of the apparatus described above is now explained by using the mollier diagram as shown in FIG. 4. The point A represents the condition of the coolant between downstream of the evaporator 8 and upstream of the cylinder 16 of the compressor 100 (FIG. 1). The point B represents the condition of the coolant at the discharge chamber 54. Point C represents the condition of the coolant between downstream of the condenser 3 and upstream of the first expansion valve means 4. The point D represents the condition of the coolant downstream of the first expansion valve means 4. The point E represents the condition of the coolant within the liquid phase of the gas liquid separator 5. The point G represents the condition of the coolant within the gas phase of the gas liquid separator 5. The point F represents the condition of the coolant downstream from the second expansion valve means 7. The point H represents the condition of the coolant within the discharge chamber 55, the coolant therein being introduced via the injection passage 9.

The cooling capacity of the refrigerant apparatus is measured by the amount of the difference of the enthalpy of the coolant between the downstream and the upstream sides of the evaporator 8 and the amount of the coolant passing through the evaporator 8. Therefore, the coolant capacity of the present apparatus is calculated by the equations described in Table 1. The comparative apparatus described in Table 1 is an apparatus which has no gas-liquid separator 5 and injection passage 9. The mollier diagram of the comparative apparatus is described by the dotted line in FIG. 4, namely, the circuit including points A B C I which designate the operation of the comparative apparatus.

                                      TABLE 1                                      __________________________________________________________________________                Present       Comparative                                                      invention     apparatus                                             __________________________________________________________________________     amount of coolant                                                                         Ge = k · r.sub.1 · Vc                                                      Ge' = k · r.sub.1 (Vc + Vc')                 passing through                                                                evaporator                                                                     amount of coolant                                                                         Gc = k(r.sub.1 · Vc + r.sub.9 · Vc')                                       Gc' = k · r.sub.1 (Vc + Vc')                 passing through                                                                condenser                                                                      cooling capacity                                                                          Qe = Ge(i.sub.1 - i.sub.7)                                                                   Qe' = Ge'(i.sub.1 - i.sub.8)                          load of compressor                                                                        L = Ge(i.sub.2 - i.sub.1) +                                                                  L' = Ge'(i.sub.2 - i.sub.1)                                      (Gc - Ge)(i.sub.3 - i.sub.9)                                        effective coefficiency                                                                     ##STR1##                                                                                     ##STR2##                                             __________________________________________________________________________

where r1 is the specific weight (kg/m³) of the coolant at point A; r9 is the specific weight of the coolant at point G; V_(c) is the volume (cc) of the cylinder 16; V_(c) ' is the volume of the cylinder 16; i is the enthalpy (kcal/kg) of the coolant at the point A-I; and K is a coefficient calculated by the equation K=Nc·ηV·60·10⁻⁶ ·Nc, where Nc is the rotation (rpm) of the compressor, and ηV is the volumetric efficiency of the compressor.

According to the calculation using the equations shown in Table 1, the refrigerant apparatus of the present invention has 17% extra capacity with respect to the comparative apparatus when Freon-12 is used as the coolant, the pressure PH of the compressor being set as 15 kg/cm² ·G and the discharge suction pressure PL of the compressor being set as 2 kg/cm² ×G. Both the apparatus of the present invention and the comparative apparatus have the compressor having ten cylinders, and 9 cylinders of the compressor of the present invention is connected with the evaporator 8, whereas the remaining one cylinder is connected with the gas-liquid separator 5 via injection passage 9.

As described above, the capacity of the refrigerant of the apparatus of the present invention is calculated by the difference of the enthalpy of the coolant between the upstream and downstream sides of the evaporator 8. Since the difference of the present invention I₁ -I₇ is larger than that of the comparative apparatus I₁ -I₈, the apparatus of the present invention can work more effectively even though the volume of the coolant passing through the evaporator 8 is reduced. Also, since the compressor 100 of the present invention can compress both coolant coming from the evaporator 8 and from the gas-liquid separator 5, the compressor 100 can be lubricated by the lubricant within the coolant from the evaporator 8 so that the compressor 100 can work very effectively. Furthermore, since the enthalpy I₃ of the coolant in the discharge chamber 55 is smaller than that in the discharge chamber 54, the coolant within the discharge chamber 54 is cooled by the coolant within the discharge chamber 55 so that the temperature of the coolant within the conduit 41 can be reduced.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the compressor. The compressor shown in FIG. 6 has lubricant oil pump 51 as well as an oil pump 50 so that the compressor shown in FIG. 6 can be lubricated more effectively.

FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the gas-liquid separator 5. The gas-liquid separator of FIG. 7 has a separating plate 6 into which the coolant from the condenser 3 collides.

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of the present invention having a variable choke means 90 as the first expansion valve means. The variable choke means 90 can vary the effective opening area of the conduit downstream of the condenser 3 in order to maintain the pressure downstream of the variable choke means 9 at a predetermined pressure. The apparatus shown in FIG. 9 has a special advantage in that the pressure reference between the pressure of the coolant in the gas-liquid separator 5 and that in the evaporator 8 can be maintained within a predetermined range. Since the discharge pressure from the compressor 100 can be varied in accordance with the condition of the refrigerant apparatus, the pressure within the gas-liquid separator should be varied in response to the discharge pressure if the capillary tube is used as the first expansion valve means 4 as shown in FIG. 8. Namely, the pressure of the coolant within the gas liquid separator is increased more than 10 kg/cm² ·G when the discharge pressure of the compressor is increased more than about 18 kg/cm² ·G and when the rotation of the compressor NC is 700 RPM. It should be noted that the suction pressure from the evaporator 8 is maintained about 2 kg/cm² ·G in order to work the evaporator 8 even though the pressure within the gas-liquid separator 5 is increased. Therefore, a serious pressure difference should be produced between the suction chamber connected with the evaporator 8 and the suction chamber 28 connected with the gas-liquid separator 5 when the pressure within the gas-liquid separator 5 is increased. Such a pressure difference should cause the rotation of the compressor 100 to be irregular.

The apparatus shown in FIG. 9, however, does not have such problem. Since the pressure of the coolant within the gas-liquid separator 5 is always maintained at the predetermined pressure value by the variable choke means 90, and since the pressure downstream of the evaporator 8 is also maintained at the predetermined pressure value by the second expansion valve means 7, the pressure difference between the suction chamber 28 which is connected with the gas-liquid separator 5 and the suction chamber 27 which is connected with the evaporator 8 can be maintained within a predetermined range. Therefore, the compressor 100 can rotate smoothly.

Though a compressor 100 having ten cylinders is described in the above embodiment, another compressor which has six cylinders, for example, can also be used as the compressor 100 of the present invention. Any other types of compressor having a plurality of cylinders and a plurality of pistons provided within the cylinders and a single shaft which reciprocates the pistons also may be used as the compressor of the present invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A refrigerant apparatus, comprising:a compressor having a plurality of cylinders, a plurality of pistons provided within said cylinders in such a manner that said pistons reciprocate within said cylinders, a single drive shaft functionally connected with each of said pistons so that said pistons reciprocate within said cylinders, a plurality of discharge chambers connected to said cylinders, and a plurality of suction chambers connected to said cylinders, said compressor sucking, compressing and discharging coolant; a condenser connected to all of said plurality of discharge chambers of said compressor so that the coolant discharged from said compressor to said condenser is condensed; a first expansion valve means connected to said condenser for reducing the pressure of the coolant downstream from said condenser; a gas-liquid separator connected to said first expansion valve means so that the coolant introduced into said gas-liquid separator from said first expansion valve means is separated into its gas phase and liquid phase, at least one of said plurality of suction chambers of said compressor being connected to an output which outputs the gas phase; a second expansion valve means connected to an output of said gas-liquid separator outputting the gas phase of said coolant for reducing the pressure of the coolant passing therethrough; and an evaporator connected to an output of said second expansion valve means so that the coolant passing through said evaporator is evaporated, the plurality of suction chambers other than said at least one suction chamber being connected to an output of said evaporator.
 2. A refrigerant apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said compressor has a wobble plate connected to said shaft, said pistons being connected to said wobble plate so that the rotation of said wobble plate makes said pistons reciprocate.
 3. A refrigerant apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first expansion valve means is a capillary tube.
 4. A refrigerant apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first expansion valve means is a variable choke means which varies an effective opening area of a conduit through which the coolant passes in order to maintain the pressure downstream of said variable choke means at a predetermined pressure. 